An empty seat is typically reserved in a restorative circle. It is an invitation for communitymembers to join, contribute knowledge, and engage in a collective justice project. This qualitative practitioner inquiry utilizes Kaplan and Garner's (2017) Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity to describe the complexity of middle school educators learning and enacting restorative practices. The study utilizes life story and semi-structured interviews to follow teachers, school counselors, and school-based psychologists in a large, diverse suburban middle school through the first six months of professional learning and practice within the restorative paradigm. This study addresses a substantial literature gap by focusing attention on the school workers who are doing restorative work in schools and the impact on their situated role identities. Participant experiences provide insight for districts and leaders considering or already engaged in un-learning retributive ways of being. It invites the field into the empty seat, to learn about the complexity and power of this work.